GOOD NEWS: Wealth is Well Being
Good News: An enewsletter for donors and nonprofits
on strategic planning, governance, fundraising, and executive leadership.
Wealth is Well Being
Thanks to the Essex County Community Foundation and The American College of Financial Services, about a month ago I joined a cohort of other professionals in pursuit of earning the credential of a chartered advisor in philanthropy ("CAP"). With a cohort of seven others working in the field, I've been reading, watching, writing about, and discussing my assignments with great interest and enthusiasm. It is fun to be a student again with such interesting materials and people!
So many familiar themes resonate with my decades long work with families and institutions all aiming to leverage their resources for the greater good. One recent course resource explored the epistemological derivation of the word wealth. The term has only meant one thing throughout history - well being. In modern life, we have taken it out of context and used it in a very limited context to define something called financial capital. That is not wealth. That's financial capital. Wealth is well being.
It was news to me that the term wealth is rooted in five distinct capitals: human, intellectual, social, spiritual, and financial.
In other words, the definition of the term wealth asks us to consider the spiritual question of whether we are consciously, continuously, and with great passion, seeking to achieve the well being of each other, of our community, and of our society. So what?
To our great detriment, many have dumbed down the term wealth to only one of its five underpinnings, financial capital. Such a dumbing down has negative consequences in the boardroom, C-suite, in the donor community, among employees, and families. Mindless refrains such as "no one is irreplaceable" when it comes to employee hiring and retention, "it is all about our bottom line" in the finance committee meeting room and CFO's office, and "show me the greatest return" in the financial advisors office, all impoverish the organizations (and the people associated with them) that lean too heavily on such a limited interpretation of wealth. We become an "I" society instead of a "we" society. All of this spells doom for us as individuals and as a society as Aristotle, among many others, warned.
So before budget and grant making decisions are made, consider fully what it means to be nourishing all five forms of capital - the true meaning of wealth - in order to promote a flourishing entity, family, community or society. Ask yourself if your habits of mind and practice engage your stakeholders' human, intellectual, social, and spiritual aspects. Focusing solely on financial capital or disproportionately weighting it is to diminish the health and well being of those you may be seeking to support, including yourself. Beware the CEO's, advisors, bankers, lawyers, private equity or venture capital teams giving lip service to the other four capitals while hyper focusing on preserving and growing financial capital, important as that is, of course.
Stuff Steve Is Watching, Listening To, and Reading
Happiness Is Essential to Progress (15 minute watch)
"What I would say is listen to us and see what these young people are going through. The hardest thing for me to learn after the Parkland shooting, and I think this goes for a lot of my classmates, is that it's ok to be happy. No matter what you've gone through. Happiness and joy are not antithetical to progress on the issue you are working on. They're an essential part of it. That was a hard lesson to learn." David Hogg, Co-Founder of Leaders We Deserve and Parkland school shooting survivor
Watch Here
Wealth Is Well Being (45 minute listen)
"May I ask you each in this high time of day to sit back, close your eyes, and take three easy breaths. Just relax. Ah, that feels good. And now that you are breathing easily with your eyes still closed, imagine yourself in the place on Earth where you are supremely happy. Your place. The smells, the sounds, the beauty of that place where you go when you are supremely happy. And just rest there. Bring that into your consciousness and let it nurture you. And now that you are resting there, invite the people you love most to join you there. Welcome them there. Give them the opportunity to enjoy that beauty, those smells, sights, that magnificence. Let me remind you that this is your wealth. This place, these people, this community." Family wealth author and advisor Jay Hughes in conversation with Joe Reilly on The Inheritance Podcast
Listen Here
The Gospel of Wealth (5 minute read)
“Such, in my opinion, is the true Gospel concerning Wealth, obedience to which is destined some day to solve the problem of the Rich and the Poor, and to bring "Peace on earth, among men good will." Andrew Carnegie, The Gospel of Wealth
Read Here
To the Good has Moved!
Please note that To the Good's new mailing address is:
#1002
580 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02111
Steve Filosa
978 578 1904
www.tothegood.net
